Semitic etymology : Query result

Number: 67

Proto-Semitic: *bahaḳ-

Afroasiatic etymology: Afroasiatic etymology

Meaning: '(kind of) skin disease'

Hebrew: bōhaḳ 'skin rash' [KB 112]; PB 'white scurf', bāhăḳān 'one having an eruption resembling leprosy' [Ja 143]

Judaic Aramaic: bōhăḳā 'white scurf' [Ja 144]; bhḳy (det. bhḳyth) 'a skin desease' [Sok 86]

Syrian Aramaic: behḳītā 'scabies' [Brock 61]

Mandaic Aramaic: baḳiata 'decay, gangrene' [DM 49]

Arabic: bahaḳ- 'dartre' [BK 1 172]

Tigre: (?) bähaḳ 'blisters' [LH 267].

In view of no other ETH examples can be suspected of being an Arabism

Mehri: bǝhyōḳ 'a condition in which the sufferer has colourless patches on his skin' [JM 45]

Jibbali: bhɔḳ 'white patches on the skin' [JJ 24].

Cf. also bhɛṣ̃ 'having a patchy haircut' [ibid.]; ṣ̃ is < *ḳ

Harsusi: bihōḳ 'the state of having uncoloured patches on the skin' [JH 16]

Notes: Compared in [DRS 49] to AKK epḳu (and ibḳu, to be found neither in [CAD] nor in [AHw]) 'leprosy' and linked to *bhḳ 'to shine, be white'. Though this meaning shift is quite plausible, note a more limited circulation of the verb (only in HBR PB, ARM and ARB [DRS 49]) than of the noun under discussion. As for AKK epḳu, it is better compared to ETH *ʕ/ʔabaḳ- forming another SEM root (see *ʕap/baḳ- 'sores, scabies, leprosy', No. ), probably eventually related to the present one.

An interesting case is represented by what can in principle be regarded as an independent SEM nominal root, though likely related eventually to the present one: ARM: JUD bahăḳā, bahăḳī, bahăḳīt_ā 'bright white spot on the skin' [Ja 142]; ETH: AMH boḳa 'blaze, white spot on the forehead of a horse or a cow' [K 906], GUR: MUH boḳa in: dama boḳa 'brown (horse or sheep) with a white spot' [LGur 147].

Cf. GEZ bak, bok 'scab, wound' [LGz 93], with -k instead of the expected -ḳ; see, however, the AFRASIAN data.

[DRS 49]: AKK (epḳu), HBR, ARM, ARB, "dial. mér." (MSA?), GEZ (ʕabaḳ, bok), TGR bähaḳ; [KB 112]: HBR, ARM, ARB, GEZ (bok), TGR, AKK (epḳu); [Brock 61]: SYR, JUD, HBR, ARB, GEZ (bok) (connects with *ʕabḳ-)